Sunday, February 3, 2013

During an interview with the Wall Street Journal posted on January 30, the
Rev. Jesse Jackson said “anti-government people” espousing what amounts to a
“Confederate ideology” will engage in terrorist activities unless the government
enacts draconian laws restricting the possession of firearms.

Jackson said the Second Amendment provides these domestic terrorists with the
ability to “do something about how they feel” in their effort to “fight the
government.”

The phrase “Confederate ideology” is shorthand for a political philosophy
that stresses states’ rights (including nullification) and adherence to the
Constitution.

New York Rep. Charlie Rangel said in January that
Southern culture – a specific reference to gun culture prevalent in the South –
is something that Democrats must work to overcome. “New York is a little
different and more progressive in a lot of areas than some other states and some
of the southern areas have cultures that we have to overcome,” Rangel told
MSNBC.

Jackson, a former Democrat presidential contender and the founder of the
Rainbow Coalition, said in August that the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle is the preferred weapon “for
domestic, homegrown terrorism.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center has also linked
Second Amendment activists to terrorists. The organization argues the “radical
right” is exploiting the gun rights issue to push a white supremacist political
ideology. The SPLC has worked closely with the Department of Homeland
Security. In 2009, a leaked DHS document revealed the agency’s
obsession with “Rightwing Extremists.”

In early December, sports columnist Jason Whitlock likened the NRA to the Ku Klux
Klan, the racist organization established during Reconstruction by former
Confederate soldiers.

“You know, I did not go as far as I’d like to go because my thoughts on the
NRA and America’s gun culture — I believe the NRA is the new KKK,” Whitlock told
CNN’s Roland Martin.

Jackson’s comments underscore an ongoing effort by Democrats and other
so-called progressives to characterize Second Amendment activists as domestic
terrorists.

Jackson Calls for DHS on Streets of Chicago

Jackson has also called for the federal government to put the Department of
Homeland Security on the streets on Chicago, according to Reuters.

He made the comment prior to a march on the city’s violence-wracked South
Side. Jackson said Chicago mayor Rahmn Emanuel and city police are unable to
address the problem and the federal government needs to intervene.

Chicago had 500 homicides in 2012 and more than 40 so far this year. The
Obama administration and the establishment media exploited the murder of Hadiya
Pendleton in Chicago after the 15-year-old girl performed at an event
celebrating the inauguration of Obama last month.

“The details of her death shook Chicago and gave fuel to gun-control
advocates in the running debate over firearms,” the New York Times reported last week. Jay Carney,
Obama’s press secretary, said the tragedy is “another example of the problem
that we need to deal with.”

Jackson did not elaborate on his comment demanding the Department of Homeland
Security patrol the streets of Chicago.

The Department of Homeland Security is a cabinet-level department of the
federal government. It was allegedly established in response to the September
11, 2001, attacks and describes its mission as protecting the United States from
terrorist attacks, man-made accidents, and natural disasters. It was not
originally mandated to work with local police.

The 2005 USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization
Act passed by Congress, however, established a “permanent police force”
subject to the “supervision of the Secretary of Homeland Security.” According to
the legislation, this new federal police force is empowered to “make arrests
without warrant for any offense against the United States committed in their
presence, or for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United
States if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be
arrested has committed or is committing such felony.”

“The language conveys enormous discretionary and arbitrary powers,” former
Reagan Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Paul Craig Roberts, wrote in 2006. “Like every law in the
US, this law also will be expansively interpreted and abused… Who is going to
hold accountable a federal police protected by Homeland Security and the
president?”

The Obama administration has yet to respond to Jackson’s demand. However, as
gang-related violence in Obama’s hometown and elsewhere continues to claim lives
and dominate headlines, it is entirely possible the federal government may
directly intervene in Chicago as part of its effort to attack the Second
Amendment and further meddle in local law enforcement duties under the
hysterical cover of putting an end to “gun violence.”